My own war game

Chapter 263 Each Has New Troubles

By the time Major General Vandergrift and his men arrived at the scene, the attack was over.

There were no casualties. The Japanese seemed to be trying to attack the planes near the airport, but the light mortars fired hastily were not very accurate. Several rounds landed near the hangar, only creating a few small craters.

But this is not a good sign.

"They were all light weapons, grenade launchers and small-caliber mortars. They even took off their shoes to avoid making any noise." He Chi said, pointing to a patch of crushed plants and messy footprints on the ground.

"They are learning from us. They also want to use guerrilla warfare of small units to cause trouble for us. However, they are not mature enough yet. Otherwise, they would not target the planes but the larger water towers." After getting along with each other for a while, Edson can be considered a half-guerrilla warfare expert.

"Haruyoshi Momotake is quite humble. The mighty Imperial Japanese Army is also playing cold guns." He Chi said sarcastically, "But we can't let them get away with it, otherwise we will be in big trouble."

The Oriental man looked around and turned to Colonel Edson and said, "Give me a company of men and I'll think of a solution."
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what! ! !
A shrill scream was heard in the woods, and a hand-cranked alarm sounded in a corner of the camp. After about ten seconds, several small black dots flew out from the mortar position and landed in the jungle nearby.

Boom boom boom! ! ! !

An explosion was heard and the dark shadow in the jungle fled in panic, leaving behind several corpses.

"What's going on?! They're shouting in front of the battlefield. Are the Imperial Army so weak now? Let's see what happened to that guy Hayami. Let him run to see me." Major General Kawaguchi was furious when he saw the report handed over by the staff officer, and was ready to severely reprimand the officer in charge.

"Sir, Captain Hayami is no longer able to report. It was him who made the noise earlier. He died for the Empire several hours ago."

"What?" Major General Kawaguchi was stunned after hearing this. He had seen that the captain was his old subordinate. Although he was sometimes reckless, he was definitely not the kind of person who would yell and scream when encountering problems. Maybe there was some hidden secret behind exposing the target this time.

His guess was soon confirmed. The three special operations teams selected and sent out by Haruyoshi Momotake himself all suffered heavy losses, with only half of their people returning. Moreover, the pattern of the attacks was the same. When approaching the target, someone in the team suddenly shouted and made a sound, and then the US military's on-duty firepower responded within seconds and attacked the location where the sound was made.

The culprit was the small traps hidden in the woods. These traps were just the right size to accommodate a person's legs and were filled with sharp barbs and sharp iron pieces. When people stepped into them, they would bleed. He Chi brought up again the same thing that later caused American soldiers to suffer in the Vietnam War.

A company of soldiers dug thousands of these hard-to-detect small traps near the base. If just one person stepped into one, the instantaneous pain would be impossible to endure with willpower.

The US Marine Corps' 1st Division, with sufficient firepower, didn't care about the consumption of ammunition at all. As long as there was an unusual noise around, it would be followed by a rain of heavy machine gun and mortar attacks. Over the past few days, the Japanese infiltration team suffered a large number of casualties.

But war is the best training ground. After just a few days, the Japanese army came up with a solution.

The principle is very simple. Thin iron sheets are tied to the calves and feet of the scouts. Although it looks crude and affects the movement, it does greatly reduce the damage caused by the Allied traps.

The camps of both sides were bustling with noise again, and the infiltration and counter-infiltration attacks and defenses never stopped. Within half a month, the two sides had several small-scale battles with hundreds of troops in the jungle. Hyakutake Harukichi and Major General Vandergrift were like two cautious fencers, constantly testing each other with light firepower, while urging their air forces to put more pressure on the enemy.

Both sides have their own concerns, and no one dares to take the lead in launching a large-scale attack. This stalemate seems to be going on.

Until one day this balance was broken.

First, the Japanese Navy in the west of Guadalcanal discovered the US Wasp aircraft carrier formation that was recovering reconnaissance aircraft.

After that, the I-19 submarine successfully approached the Wasp and fired six torpedoes at a distance of 900 meters, which was almost face-to-face.

Three of the torpedoes hit the side of the Wasp, causing great damage and igniting the aircraft carrier's oil tanker, directly causing the large ship to sink.

This was not the only achievement of the I-19. The Type 9 torpedo it carried had a range of 8 kilometers, and the other three of the six torpedoes hit the USS O'Brien destroyer and the battleship USS North Carolina of the Hornet aircraft carrier formation behind them after sailing a distance of kilometers, resulting in one sinking and one seriously damaged.

A salvo of 6 torpedoes was fired, 5 of which hit the target, with one shot having three explosions, two sunk and one seriously damaged. Then the I-19 actually ran away in full view of everyone. Such an impressive record is simply unique in the Japanese submarine force.

If it were a game, someone would definitely say that the captain of the I-19 turned on the auto-aim cheat, but in fact that's what happened.

The problem became serious afterwards. The heavy losses frightened the commander of the Hornet, Noyce, who thought that his whereabouts had been exposed and that he had been ambushed on a large scale. In order to preserve the safety of the aircraft carrier, this guy actually chose to retreat alone, leaving General Turner, who was in charge of the Guadalcanal material transport fleet, in the Pacific Ocean.

However, General Turner, who had been inconspicuous before, showed his military spirit. He ordered his fleet to speed up and send the transport ship to Guadalcanal with only a small number of destroyers as escort.

Turner made the right bet. The Japanese I-19 submarine encountered the US military by chance, and the Japanese army had no time to arrange follow-up troop attacks. This also allowed him to finally fulfill his promise and deliver the last large-scale supply of materials to Guadalcanal.

But this was indeed the last time. After that, due to the deteriorating sea situation, the sea transportation supplies that the Guadalcanal defenders could receive were drastically reduced. Relying solely on air transportation, it was like a drop in the bucket to support the consumption of more than 1 people.

What is dramatic is that the Japanese army also encountered trouble at almost the same time. The Cactus Squadron performed exceptionally well that day, not only sinking two Japanese transport destroyers, but also damaging the Japanese light modified aircraft carrier Nissin, which was responsible for transporting large equipment.

Now Haruyoshi Momotake's finances began to become tight, and because the previous transportation of supplies had not been smooth, his situation was even more serious than that of the Americans.

So the commanders of both sides made the same conclusion: they were running out of food and would starve to death if they delayed any further.

How to do?
In a fight, just knock down the opponent first!

(End of this chapter)